Gautam Gambhir Feels Ravindra Jadeja’s 175 Was Not The Best Knock Of His Test Career: India’s star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been receiving praises from all corners for his stellar all-around show in the just-concluded 1st Test match between India and Sri Lanka in Mohali. He was the star of the game as he played an instrumental role in India’s thumping win over Sri Lanka.
Jadeja played a who recently made a return from injury, slammed an unbeaten knock of 175 runs and also went on to pick a total of 9 wickets in the game as team India thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 222 runs to take a lead of 1-0 in the series.
While the southpaw has been receiving praises from all around, former Indian opener and world cup hero Gautam Gambhir feels that a 40-50 run knock in overseas conditions like Australia will boost the confidence of Indian all-rounders more than the 175* run knock he played at home against Sri Lanka.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gambhir said: “I feel the innings Ravindra Jadeja played in Australia or the knocks he has played outside India, he will get more confidence from that. Stats can be very misleading,”
He added:
“There was a time after the century where he was just milking – Dhananjaya de Silva, (Charith) Asalanka and (Lasith) Embuldeniya were bowling but if you talk about Australia or England, the 40 or 50-run contributions there are probably much more important than this innings,”
Jadeja looked in splendid touch during the match as he took the Sri Lankan bowlers to cleaners. He became the sixth player to score 150-plus and claim 5 wickets in a Test match. He also broke the long-standing Kapil Dev’s record of most runs by an Indian, batting at number 7 position or below.
Further, Gautam Gambhir feels that it was Jadeja’s useful contributions in difficult circumstances for team India that played a crucial role in scoring a mammoth 175* runs against SL. He said
“These 175 runs are the by-product of how Ravindra Jadeja has batted in overseas conditions. You only see the end result but the lead up to these 175 runs, there has been a lot of effort put in that, he scored runs in very difficult circumstances and conditions and that is why he got a chance at No. 6 or No. 7,”
He added: “If he had probably not scored runs in those conditions, the team management might have had the temptation to play someone else, probably Ashwin at No. 7. When you come after scoring runs in such difficult conditions, you get opportunities to improve your stats or your Test record,”
